Debate over heritage value of Canberra church

The Catholic Church has, or will shortly appeal against the listing of St Patrick's Church Braddon on the ACT Heritage Register for the second time, reports The Canberra Times.

Administrator of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn John Woods said yesterday he had met with lawyers and, as previously indicated, the archdiocese would appeal to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal against the inclusion of the 1935 building on the register.

The ACT Heritage Council included the church on the register on July 7 last year, but in November was forced to restart the process because the listing was outside the five months required by legislation since the provisional listing.

The church was provisionally registered again on December 1 last year, but that too had to be revoked because the details in the online register for the church were incorrect. 

St Patrick's was provisionally registered on February 23 for the third time and, as expected, was recently formally registered again.

If the appeal against the listing is unsuccessful, the archdiocese will likely have to alter its plans for the land on which the church stands to be included in an ACT government redevelopment at the southern end of Braddon, adjacent to Civic.

Money from the sale of the land would contribute to a proposed multi-million dollar redevelopment of the precinct of St Christopher's Cathedral in Manuka.